About The Hebridean Explorer

John Alasdair Macdonald is a native of the Scottish Highlands and Islands and has been operating The Hebridean Explorer for over seventeen years and his aim on every tour is that you get to sample as many of the delights of the Scottish Highlands and Islands as possible from the stunning landscapes and dramatic scenery to the ancient history, traditions and culture that make this land so special.

More about John Alasdair Macdonald

I was raised on a small croft (a traditional Highland agricultural landholding) near the coast, in the village of Coll, on the eastern side of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. My family have been on the same croft for over two hundred years (at least since 1815 ) and for generations my ancestors were crofters and fishermen

As a young child my first language was Scottish Gaelic and I didn’t begin to learn English until I started school. However, my schooling was dominated by the English language (not so for my much younger brother who actually went to a Gaelic Medium School) and by the time I reached my teens, English had become my main language. It is due to my mother that I have kept a little Gaelic - she refuses to talk to me in English.

I left the Highlands at seventeen to go to college in Edinburgh. Twenty five years later I finally finished a degree! After gaining a degree in Scottish History and a Masters in British Studies from the Centre of History at the University of the Highlands and Islands, I am now in my final months of a part-time PhD programme, researching the Scottish Gaelic clans of the central and west Highlands during the mid-eighteenth century.

For the last twenty two years I have been based near Inverness. Before beginning The Hebridean Explorer, my wife and I owned a Bed and Breakfast, in fact it’s where the seeds of being a tour guide came from. Spending time talking to guests about where they were going, I thought - wouldn’t it be great to actually take people there! I am now very fortunate to have had seventeen years doing a job I absolutely love, travelling the Highlands and the Hebridean Islands, visiting the best sites and the real scenic gems and sharing Highland history.

Read more about John Alasdair Macdonald's PhD Research.